Updated: East Ridge Cross-Country Coach Honored

recently announced that head cross-country coach Chad Cronin has been named the Section 4AA Coach of the Year.

Cronin’s peers—for the second year in a row—chose him for the honor.

“I was very surprised,” he said. “I know people always say that, but I was genuinely surprised.”

Typically, Cronin said, the award goes to the coach of the top team in the section, and as the East Ridge girls finished second this year, it was more unexpected.

Cronin ran cross-country and swam as a student at South St. Paul, and he got into coaching in the swimming and diving program.

“I always thought, ‘Man, in the fall it would be nice to coach cross-country.’”

And when an opportunity at the new high school in Woodbury opened up, he jumped at the chance.

Cronin said his favorite thing about coaching is seeing how the student-athletes learn from the highs and lows of the sport.

“That’s real success,” he said.

Still, that first year starting a new cross-country program at East Ridge was a challenge: everything from ordering uniforms to finding a meeting place to scheduling meets. “Simple things like that,” Cronin said.

“In the end, it was definitely worth it,” he said. “And in three years we’ve already got some pretty strong traditions. … I’m glad to be part of that.”

The Raptors cross-country program has more than 70 participants, representing six different grades. 

The girls’ team has won back-to-back conference championships and has made consecutive appearances in the State AA Meet, . 

Cronin is a teacher at Pullman Elementary.